Longtime auto service business owner remembered for jokes, teaching

FUNERAL SERVICEThe funeral service will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday at Our Lady of Victory Cathedral, 1311 E. Mesquite Lane.

For more than 50 years, Joe Maurer could be found joking with his customers at Victoria Aligning Service.

The 78-year-old was scheduling appointments and taking care of customers until the November day he went to the hospital, his son, Wesley said.

Maurer died in the hospital Friday after several medical complications.

Having had 10 children and boasting 31 grandchildren, not to mention the loyal customers and friends he had made throughout the years, Wesley said, he expects his father's funeral on Tuesday to be a full house.

"He was a hard worker, a jokester, liked to pick on people," Wesley said. "Everybody that knew him just loved him."

Maurer's father started the wheel-alignment business in 1956. Wesley, 40 and the youngest of his siblings, said his father worked there his whole life before coming to own the place.

Neither of the men were much into the book side of things, instead preferring to work with their hands and with the customers.

"He taught me everything there was to know about doing alignments, brakes and extension overhaul," Wesley said. "I've been (in the shop) my whole life. I was down there before I was born."

Kenneth Albrecht, a former mechanic who worked at the shop for 30 years, remembers Joe Maurer for his teaching moments and tireless spirit.

"There were many times he would work a full shift in the oil field and them come to the shop," he said, remembering Joe Maurer did everything to provide for his family and instruct.

"He always had time to show you how the work was supposed to be done and how they wanted it done," he said.

Wesley is now the third-generation owner of the business and plans to carry on his father's legacy of work hard, play hard.

"Yeah, he liked to have fun, but his job was very serious to him," Wesley said. "He took his job very seriously."

But he didn't take himself too seriously.

"He told jokes to everybody that came in," Wesley said. "He always had something to say about something."